WW2 British bomb found in Koblenz causes 45000 people evacuation

[fruitbat]

Bah, pity the Belgium farmer who's on top of this,

http://www.chavasse.u-net.com/messines.html

During the Battle of Messines ridge in 1917, 19 mines were exploded under the German frontline.

The resulting explosion was heard in London.

The least explosive used in one of the mines was 14,900 lbs, the most 95,600 lbs. The explosive used was Ammonal.

They averaged around a 200 foot crater, and i've stood in one, the Spanbroekmolen crater, and its big.

Alas 2 didn't go off. the war progressed and they were forgotten.

However, in a thunder storm in 1955 one of the remaining 2 decided to go bang, killing a cow that was unfortunate enough to be minding its own business in the area, the other is still out there waiting with the Ammonal deteriorating.......

Apparently its location has been pinpointed now,

http://www.1976design.com/blog/archi...exploded-bomb/

Don't know about you, but I'd have a serious aversion to thunder storms living there......

[BPickles]

Incredible stuff, its hard to imagine that amount of munitions going up
These help though:

[JG53Frankyboy]

webcam in Koblenz
http://www.swr.de/nachrichten/rp/swr...ap7/index.html

[TomcatViP]

Originally Posted by fruitbat

Bah, pity the Belgium farmer who's on top of this,

http://www.chavasse.u-net.com/messines.html

During the Battle of Messines ridge in 1917, 19 mines were exploded under the German frontline.

The resulting explosion was heard in London.

The least explosive used in one of the mines was 14,900 lbs, the most 95,600 lbs. The explosive used was Ammonal.

They averaged around a 200 foot crater, and i've stood in one, the Spanbroekmolen crater, and its big.

Alas 2 didn't go off. the war progressed and they were forgotten.

However, in a thunder storm in 1955 one of the remaining 2 decided to go bang, killing a cow that was unfortunate enough to be minding its own business in the area, the other is still out there waiting with the Ammonal deteriorating.......

Apparently its location has been pinpointed now,

http://www.1976design.com/blog/archi...exploded-bomb/

Don't know about you, but I'd have a serious aversion to thunder storms living there......

Thx for sharing. Never heard abt !

[Kongo-Otto]

The Danger of unexploded WW2 Bombs is a daily risk.

23rd October 2006 at the Autobahn near Aschaffenburg, during Maintenance Works on the Autobahn a 250 lbs explods and kills one worker, four bypassing semitrailer trucks are damaged beyond repair.



Five Weeks after the explosion another 250 lbs Bomb was found just 200 meters away from the explosion site at the Autobahn A3:


And there are still Thousands of them somewhere to be found, everywhere.

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

Do they retroactively add that to the USAAF's casualty numbers?

now that's a tasteful comment

[Kongo-Otto]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

Do they retroactively add that to the USAAF's casualty numbers?

No why should they?
The more important question imho is why wasnt a proper search for unexploded Bombs performed by the Bavarian authorities?
Knowing that the Aera was heavily bombed and it also was scene of heavy ground battles lasting several days, between the (iirc) 45th US Inf Div and the Wehrmacht a proper analysis of the USAAF and RAF Aerial Pictures made after Bombing Raids would have easily prevented the explosion.
Those Aerial Pictures are available to german authorities since years.

btw, its not possible to say who dropped the Bomb, it also could have been a Bomb dropped by the RAF in the November 1944 Raid on Aschaffenburg.

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by Kongo-Otto

No why should they?
The more important question imho is why wasnt a proper search for unexploded Bombs performed by the Bavarian authorities?
Knowing that the Aera was heavily bombed and it also was scene of heavy ground battles lasting several days, between the (iirc) 45th US Inf Div and the Wehrmacht a proper analysis of the USAAF and RAF Aerial Pictures made after Bombing Raids would have easily prevented the explosion.
Those Aerial Pictures are available to german authorities since years.

btw, its not possible to say who dropped the Bomb, it also could have been a Bomb dropped by the RAF in the November 1944 Raid on Aschaffenburg.

It's virtually impossible man. Sometimes bombs get 15, 20 metres deep, there's no way of finding them. It's a sad testament of those dark years, but thinking about finding them all and neutralising them is too much of a prohibitive thing to do in terms of costs.

[Bewolf]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

It's virtually impossible man. Sometimes bombs get 15, 20 metres deep, there's no way of finding them. It's a sad testament of those dark years, but thinking about finding them all and neutralising them is too much of a prohibitive thing to do in terms of costs.

That's indeed a problem. Ground in Germany and especially rivers are so full of metal that any focused search for bombs is an excercise in futility. You just have to go by what is obvious.

[TomcatViP]

Damn we can found oil mixed in sand at 1km beneath ground level. There isn't any good excuse not to find a metallic 250lb+ bomb (I am not talking abt hand grenades here )

A small team, a mini-drone, a truck and hundreds of km² can be done in a day.